Magic and Imaginary Solutions

This essay is part of my series on pataphysics, the literary trope invented by French absurdist Alfred Jarry. Past essays in the series include: Pataphysics: A Secret Weapon for Creativity and What Happened to Patapsychology?

Among the many definitions of pataphysics, one in particular stands out. It slips and bounces off the tongue. It’s damn lovely, the closest thing to a fully-formed poem a dictionary definition has ever come. It’s this:

Pataphysics: The science of imaginary solutions.

We’ve got a couple of big words there. “Science.” “Imaginary.” “Solutions.” It’s not entirely clear what they’re doing together. Take them differently, “The solution of imaginary science” or “The imaginary science of solutions,” and you sort of — practically speaking — have the same thing, right? So the meaning is almost certainly a little…loose.

What do we make of this damn lovely thing?

Well, meaning aside, it is important for “science” to come first in the string of big words. Alfred Jarry, the founder of pataphysics, was clear that his invention was in fact a hard science (parody). And from there, we might as well accept and make peace with “imaginary solutions” keeping their original orientation.

As for the meaning…